Overview

Plankton Raiden board is a multi-layer designed testing board to switch out USB Type-C input data lane. There are several USB muxes and a DisplayPort (DP) re-driver with multiple IO ports so that we can switch USB Type-C functions with huge flexibility. On the board there is also an STM MCU chip for muxes and switches controller, and FTDI listener to get commands from the outside host.

Hardware Capabilities

Data

DUT as host: USB 3.1 Gen 1

DUT as device: USB 2.0

Video

USB-C to DisplayPort converter

Includes DP redriver to allow 4K @ 60Hz

Power

Source 5V/12V/20V@3A for DUT as sink

Monitor voltage/current on VBUS for DUT as source

CC monitoring

Dual CC connection allows “flip connector” tests

USB PD traffic monitor on both CC lines

Block diagram

For schematic and board files, please see the attached zip file at the bottom of this page.

Hardware Switches

Set the switches to default setting before flashing EEPROM or firmware.

SW9 - Enable Debug buttons (switch to DISABLE to enable function, there is a layout mistake)

SW1 - Set Boot0 signal to low (No MCU_BOOT0)

SW3 - Set to L:CN3 or CN5

SW14 - Set to L: CN5 to HUB

SW17 (in the back) - Set 5V OVP for CN1

In the following session, please power up the board and connect to the host through USB3.0 Micro B port (CN5).

EEPROM Programming

For a brand-new board, please program its EEPROM first for setting serial number and product and vendor ID.

Install ftx-prog, you can download the program from the Github here and unzip to your home directory.

sudo apt-get install build-essential gcc make libftdi-dev

cd ~/ftx-prog-master

make

and then use this command to flash EEPROM. The format of serial number is "901008-XXXXX", get the last 5 digits from the back of the Plankton Raiden board.